Conor Lamb’s Senate campaign is getting a super PAC boost — featuring James Carville

A super PAC has been set up to boost U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb’s campaign for Senate — and if it raises as much money as it plans, it could help him close a financial gap with Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the Democratic primary.

Messages sent to prospective donors, obtained by The Inquirer, set a goal of spending $8 million on TV ads and other paid media ahead of the Pennsylvania primary election in May. Some big Pennsylvania Democratic donors got emails this week from famed political strategist James Carville introducing them to the group, Penn Progress, and asking them to support it.

“I wanted to reach out to you about the single most important Senate race in the country this November which is being held in Pennsylvania,” Carville wrote in one email. “There is no way that Democrats can expand our majority in the Senate if we do not pick up the Pennsylvania Senate seat and the best person to win that race is my good friend Conor Lamb. ... Conor has a tough primary, and I was hoping you could help him by supporting Penn Progress, the independent effort set up to help ensure Conor is our nominee.”

In a memo Penn Progress sent prospective donors last fall, the group described itself as “veteran campaign strategists with thirty years of electoral experience in Pennsylvania and beyond.”

Federal campaign finance laws put strict limits on how much individuals and many other political committees can give directly to political campaigns. Super PACs aren’t subject to those contribution limits, meaning they can spend huge sums influencing elections. They’re not allowed to coordinate their activities with the campaigns they support, or to contribute to them.

» READ MORE: Oz spends his own cash, Fetterman laps the Democrats, and more from Pa. Senate fund-raising reports

Penn Progress registered with the Federal Election Commission in September. It reported raising just $35,000 in 2021. Its memo lays out an ambitious goal of spending $8 million on paid statewide media, $200,000 on polling, and $60,000 on research, a website, and social media.

That kind of money could bridge the fund-raising gulf between Lamb and Fetterman, who raised $12 million last year and continues to pull in huge sums from mostly small-dollar, repeat donors. Lamb raised $4 million last year after a later entry into the race and entered 2022 with about $3 million in the bank, compared with $5.3 for Fetterman.

Carville, reached by phone Wednesday, called Lamb a friend and said he knew his grandfather, Thomas Lamb, who was leader of the state Senate Democrats in the 1970s.

“I think he’s by far the strongest candidate to win in the general election,” Carville said. ”[Fetterman] has more money and he’s more known,” two things the super PAC will help address, Carville added.

Carville is planning a call with donors next week that he said will include an appearance by Lamb. Candidates are allowed to appear at super PAC events as long as they don’t solicit donations themselves. Carville said Lamb will get off the call after speaking, before the super PAC’s leader discusses its efforts.

» READ MORE: John Fetterman got a lot of cash from a surprising source: snail mail

Steve Cozen, a prominent Philadelphia-area Democratic donor, contributed $10,000 to Penn Progress, according to the group’s federal filing. Cozen had already contributed the maximum allowed to Lamb’s campaign — $2,900 for the primary election and $2,900 for the general election. The Sheetmetal Workers Union, which endorsed Lamb, gave the PAC $35,000.

Firms listed on the memo as being involved are Ralston Lapp Guinn, which created digital ads for Eric Adams’ mayoral run in New York City; ALG research, a polling firm; Berger Hirschberg Strategies, a fund-raising firm that worked for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign; and D’Amico Strategy & Communications, which specializes in opposition research.

A website for Penn Progress hasn’t yet been set up.

The Republican Senate primary, already awash in spending from wealthy candidates, also features at least three so-called independent expenditure groups — one each for Mehmet Oz, David McCormick, and Jeff Bartos.

The McCormick-aligned super PAC, backed in large part by fellow hedge fund executive Kenneth Griffin, recently made an eye-popping $12 million TV ad buy to hammer Oz.

-Staff writer Jonathan Tamari contributed to this article.